VC’s Techie CockTail

In one of my previous post, I posted some of the web based IM’s out there and the way Meebo has a gadget to integrate IM into your webpage or blog. Now Google has come up with Google Talk Gadget in addition to its Google Talk Client, whereby you can add the Gadget to your Google Homepage
allowing you to do some cool stuff like viewing youtube videos and picasa webalbums in addition to getting to chat with your Google pals. Or you could add Google Talk to your webpage by getting the code here.

The code is just 2 lines which can be added to your webpage or blog. So no techie jargons to worry about. And speaking about the Google homepage , now they have added cool stuff like Themes which changes according to the time of day in your city. If you have google id, preview it here.

written by Vignesh

I came across a Sony Ericsson W300i, not a phone with”Mind-blowing” specs going for it, but a cute & compact phone with rocking music. I think people who are looking for a clamshell phone with basic voice & text communication and looking for a back-up to your IPod or my favourite Creative Zen to while away your time during travel can look forward to this mobile phone.

Some of the things going for this phone are,

• Solid build quality with a informative outer screen (greyscale) with 3 lines
• Bright screen (TFT with 128 x 160 pixels) and easy to understand User Interface
• Ready to go for music with in-ear headphones, 256 MB memory stick , USB cable & Disc2Phone software
• Excellent music quality with MegaBass and FM radio too
• GPRS / EDGE with Bluetooth capability to use Internet on your phone or through your PC / Laptop
• Java Games & Music DJ, PhotoDJ to enjoy your free time

Some specs not going for this phone are,

• Low resolution screen when compared to other SE models like Z550, W550 in this price range
• VGA camera only , good for MMS but not good for a bigger screen
• No full screen video support

For a price of 200$, it is a good buy for teens, college goers looking for Music & Phone on the Go. There is also a poor cousin for W300i called Z530 with a UBC screen (dimmer than TFT), minus FM & EDGE but plus Style-Up cover (exchangeable covers) at 145$. You can buy a Memory Stick Micro and headphone to make it closer to a W300i if you want.

Other music phones competing in this price range are Sony Ericsson W200i (specs similar to K310/K320 with Memory card slot), Nokia 5200,LG KG200.

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Sony Ericsson

My friend recently got a Motorola A1200 a.k.a MING . I have read and seen lots of Motorola’s models like RAZR, SLVR more known for their ‘ svelte ‘ looks than for it ‘ brainy features ‘. But people who are on a tight budget and looking for a PDA cum mobile phone , MING might be a answer to all your prayers.

Lookwise its good, not as sexy as a RAZR you might say. For a Smartphone its compact in size with a flip to cover the front screen. With a solid build quality and fairly lightweight for a ’smartphone’ i should say its a good start for a smartphone. I will try to tackle this “JACK of ALL TRADES” in various departments from the brief meeting with it I had.

• PHONE : As some people tend to forget, first & foremost its a Mobile phone…Reception is good, call quality is little on the softer side otherwise its ok. Speakerphone does its work. Phonebook is standard for a phone with multiple no’s, address and email id’s.

• PDA : The touchscreen is OK. The User Interface with its 240 x 320 screen is good but the icons could have been drawn better. The phone is slow especially while going through long lists, file management tasks etc. The calendar is standard stuff , with inbuilt readers for office & pdf documents. E-Mail & Web browser are quite good but slow. Since its a linux powered device you could download 3rd party softwares from the internet and install it in your phone.

  GPRS is provided for internet connectivity and Bluetooth is also present for connecting to other phones, headsets, printers. You could also use bluetooth stereo headphones to stream wireless music.

• MULTIMEDIA : The screen is very good for viewing pictures and videos. Sound through the speaker is soft whereas using headphones you could enjoy all the beats. Real player is used for viewing videos and hearing music. A FM tuner is present for Radio too.Full screen video is possible with ways to skip forward / backward through the videos. But as I said scanning the memory card for files takes time.

  Camera is quite OK for taking pictures and videos. The 2 megapixel camera is mediocre in terms of other 2 Megapixels camera phones out there, but it does the business in well lighted situations. One cool feature is the ” Biz Card Scanner “, whereby you can take the photo of a biz card and it will store all the details in your address book. Tried it and it worked alright.

As you can see its just a glancing encounter with the MING, but as I said its a JACK OF ALL TRADES but KING of none. But for a price of 340$ its a Value Buy for people who are looking for a “Smartphone” in a tight budget.

written by Vignesh

For people on the move, or people who use cyber cafes or who hate to have IM’s seperately for Yahoo, Google, MSN, ICQ here is a great way and easy way to all these Instant Messengers in one place wherever you go. Google made it popular with their web based IM’s but now Yahoo has also come up with their own web based IM to join the bandwagon. But I will highlight two other sites which makes this possible.

• Meebo : One of the best out there with possibility to log into Yahoo, Google, MSN, AOL, ICQ & jabber. The interface is nice and simple and very easy to use(No need to sign up before logging into the IM). If you want you could sign up for a account to use other Meebo features like Widgets. Another cool feature is MeeboMe which gives you the capability to add your own IM window in your website.

• eBuddy : This is also good but limited in terms of network, you can log into Yahoo, MSN & AOL. But the cool feature of ebuddy is that you can log into any of the IM through your mobile phone, PSP or Nintendo DS without installing any additional software. Just type http://mob.ebuddy.com in your phone browser .Works in both xHTML or WAP 2.0 enabled browser and WAP 1.1 browser. For people looking for software to carry your IM in the phone read my post here on IM on the Move.

Note : Yahoo India has their web based IM here you can try it out.

written by Vignesh